The feat has been made possible by combining ultra-thin silicon material with rubber, effectively placing silicon on to the bendable rubber surface. The breakthrough has come from the fact that not only are they able to produce complete integrated circuits, but also the performance of those circuits is on a par with conventionally manufactured ones.

The ability to bend a silicon chip without breaking it is due to the actual size of the circuitry. In Professor Rogers’ labs, they can create a complete circuit that is just 1.5 microns thick. As Rogers explains:

What that thinness provides is a degree of bendability that substantially exceeds anything we or anyone else has done at circuit level in the past.

Rogers has now turned his attentions to applications for the flexible chips. Top of the agenda are medical applications, including a smart latex glove that can read vital signs during surgery and a sheet of electronics to lie on the brain and monitor activity in epileptics.

The technology has a much wider appeal than just the field of medicine, however, and research is also being done into smart clothing and better integration of electronics into the curved surfaces of aircraft fuselages.

This certainly has the potential to change the way electronic devices are designed. It is especially good news that the performance of the flexible chips is on a par with existing chip technology. That translates to a shorter turnaround time for the tech being used in the latest products, since there is no compromise on performance.

You can’t pin down specific types of gadget this will affect, as it is likely going to impact all gadgets. This may also have a big impact on cooling electronics as well. If you can now create chips that are on a curved surface, then it may be possible to cool them better dependent on the design of the surface and placement of fans.